Nice article about game version numbering.

[Papa Ernie]

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"There is no standard, but you should do it in a way that makes sense to you and contains all the information you may need to track that build. I worked for a company that essentially broke it down like this:

[Major build number].[Minor build number].[Revision].[Package]

i.e. Version: 1.0.15.2

• Major build number: This indicates a major milestone in the game, increment this when going from beta to release, from release to major updates.
  
  
• Minor build number: Used for feature updates, large bug fixes etc.
  
  
• Revision: Minor alterations on existing features, small bug fixes, etc.
  
  
• Package: Your code stays the same, external library changes or asset file update.

Combined changes roll over to the most significant change. For example, if you're incrementing the minor build number, the revision and package both reset to 0.

Even though the categories are defined, there's still ambiguity for what kind of features actually cross over between a revision and a minor build number. It's up to you. If you make lists of the features that will need to be implemented before each increment, you'll also have a plan to follow, but in the end it's your decision as to what fits into each category."

 

[FallenLondon]

This.

Show this to all the numpties complaining about version number related to content. Versions are meant for the developer, not for the consumers. So treat it like the number it is and don't attach any meaning to it.

Having said that, I don't have the illusion your typical maker of porngames thinks about versioning.

 

[greyelf]

"There is no standard

I personally would change that to be "There is no one standard used by all developers", because there are a number of 'standards' (eg.

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is one of them) but unfortunately us professional developers have never been able to agree on one of them to be 'the' standard.

** And if professional developers can't come to such an agreement how can we expect those doing development for either a hobbie or as secondary process to make porn games to do so. *smile*

 

[GDS]

interesting, Mine are still kind of confusing, first version was 'Part 1' Second were "0.2" next I'm planing on "Part 3 the final V 0.4 Bug fix 03"

I just think that a lot of people see games label as "A0.3" think the game still too small, And there are those devs that start with 1.07 version, and it's like a demo

 

[anne O'nymous]

** And if professional developers can't come to such an agreement how can we expect those doing development for either a hobbie or as secondary process to make porn games to do so. *smile*

This plus the fact that most of them don't really planned their devel process. Especially if they're on patreon and pass their time asking what people want next. You can't plan a project in which you've so few control. So, they start at 0.01, add 0.01 to each new version, and have a 0.21 finished game or an unfinished game at 2.99.
Personally, I tried to find a way to add versioning to my mods... Then fall back to the +0.01 thing. Partly because I can't predict the future of the game(s) I mod, but also because in fact it doesn't matter. 0.21 is upper than 0.19, so the actual version have more content than the one I already have, point. Everything else is just chit-chat, or whining, depending of what is said and how it's said.

And there are those devs that start with 1.07 version, and it's like a demo

It's not necessarily a trick. They can see the 1.00 as the first version which isn't anymore a pure alpha. The moment they finally figured out how the game should be made and how its mechanism must be done, they moved from their fully privates 0.x to a public 1.x. And they start at 1.07 because the seven firsts were "for friends only" ; each new version correcting a bug they missed, or adjusting the design.

 

[greyelf]

I believe that as long as a developer is consistent in how they use whatever versioning syntax/format they choose to use (or make up lol) then the end-user will be able to work out that 0.21 was released later than 0.19 was.

Although the way the end-user's operating system sorts files names alphabetically can influence how easy it is to work this out.
eg.
1. Does "the-game_v0.9" come before or after "the-game_v0.21" when "9" alphabetically comes after "2"?
2. Does "the-game_v0.9.1" come before or after "the-game_v0.9"
3. Does the order in point 2 change if the the second is changed from "the-game_v0.9" to "the-game_v0.9.0"
4. Does the order of any of the above examples change on older versions of operating systems?

 

[muttdoggy]

Version is NEVER consistent and in my opinion, it should never be.
I'm familiar with development of songs, legal documents, etc. Not every first version or first draft is the final take. There's several versions, numerous takes, and so on. Even some songs are done piece by piece and then stitched together like many games are. Everyone has their own system for a reason. It's the system that appeals to their own mind. They understand it, they are familiar with it, and above all, it works for them.
For each unique person, they have a system they innately understand. For that reason, a "universal system" wouldn't take hold. Take the language I grew up with- English. Certain groups in Great Britain/England/U.K. have tried for a century to standardize English and they all fail.
Better question.... If you standardize a system, how does that evolve?

 

[RomanHume]

I personally would change that to be "There is no one standard used by all developers", because there are a number of 'standards' (eg.

You must be registered to see the links

is one of them) but unfortunately us professional developers have never been able to agree on one of them to be 'the' standard.

** And if professional developers can't come to such an agreement how can we expect those doing development for either a hobbie or as secondary process to make porn games to do so. *smile*

When our team isn't writing porn games in the evening, we make our living as data scientists writing R packages. We have always found semantic versioning to be the most practical for what we do. For that reason, we use semantic versioning for our game and it's insane the amount of confusion this has caused among our readers.

Even so, we continue to use it because to us it just makes sense.

 

[jsbb9999]

Reviving this old thread - found through search.

The versioning I see on the games posted @ F95 is a mess.
I tried my best to follow the game versioning as part of my mods' versioning, but that's proven to be hard with all the madness going on.

I do like what is being proposed @ OP in this thread, and hopefully there is a way to expose this thread to most developers to (hopefully) follow the versioning standards.

I was going to propose something simpler:

X . Y . Z
X = Major milestone (maybe arc)
Y = Minor milestone (maybe chapter)
Z = Patch lvl

But then i found this thread and saw the proposed standard, and i can live with that
Now, seriously, how can we get this thread exposed to game developers (especially new ones), to hopefully improve/end the madness.

 

[shark_inna_hat]

Just use the (short) git revision hash.
What? You're not using git? Well, there's your problem!

 

[polywog]

I, for one, like Roman numerals.

 

[RomanHume]

I, for one, like Roman numerals.

I see what you did there!